crauvsCrosWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: crau is a noun, Cros is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“crau” is a noun and “Cros” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,959
“crau” frequency rank
#31,428
“Cros” frequency rank
76387
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crau Cros
Definition Plaine semée de pierres et de galets arrondis, couverte d’une steppe propice aux activités pastorales. Nom de famille.

Letter map: crau vs Cros

Shared letters muted; letters that set crau and Cros apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. crau (CCVV) and Cros (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
crau
4 ch
Cros

Grammar separator: crau vs Cros

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: crau is anoun and Crosaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76387, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crau is recorded at frequency rank #44,959, classified as anoun, pronounced \kʁo\. Cros is at rank #31,428, tagged as aname.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 76387, this pair ranks #31,302 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of crau vs Cros

Shared letters: cr. Private to "crau": au. Private to "Cros": os.

"crau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "Cros" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crau ← caru · ccrau · crrau · crua · rcau
  • Cros ← ccros · crros · crso · rcos

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "crau" and "Cros" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "crau" is a noun and "Cros" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "crau" vs "Cros" - which ranks higher?
"Cros" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,428 in our French list, against #44,959 for "crau". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "crau" and "Cros".

  • Full dictionary entry for "crau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Cros" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,302 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crau" and "Cros" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chah vs crau". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #31,302 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list